GOP House Speaker-elect Kurt Zellers announced today that he’s suspending GOP Rep. Tom Hackbarth’s role as chair of the House Environment, Energy & Natural Resources Policy & Finance Committee. The announcement comes just one day after it became public that St. Paul police confiscated a loaded handgun from Hackbarth after he was spotted with the weapon holstered to his hip in the parking lot of the Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Paul (More on that here). Hackbarth has a permit to carry a concealed handgun. He wasn’t arrested or charged with a crime.

Here’s the statement from Zellers:

Due to an incident on Tuesday, November 16, State Representative Tom Hackbarth has been suspended from any current and pending leadership roles within the House GOP Caucus. The suspension will remain in effect until the issue is fully resolved.

I’m following up to find out what “fully resolved” means since St. Paul Police say he won’t be charged with a crime. One potential issue would be if an ethics complaint is filed against Hackbarth.

About the blogger

Tom Scheck has covered politics and state government for more than ten years for MPR News. He’s covered several gubernatorial campaigns, two statewide recounts, the presidential bids of Tim Pawlenty and Michele Bachmann, U.S. Senate races, close Congressional contests and the Minnesota Legislature. He lives in Falcon Heights with his wife, son and dog. He can sometimes be found chasing a white ball on a golf course. It isn’t a straight walk. Tips are welcome at tscheck@mpr.org

While there are many times men’s professional lives have been damaged to excess by rather frivolous harassment or stalking charges, this is not one of them! He had a LOADED REVOLVER on him while hunting her down!! My concern here with this story is why was he not charged with anything? I am somewhat an advocate for men’s rights in this area….and as such, do not like it at ALL when other men do some actually very scary and stupid stuff – makes keeping the response to lessor things balanced all that much harder. In this case he deserves whatever punishment comes to him…at least that much…

http://residualforces.com AAA

Ugh, he’s a lawful carry permit holder. His decision process sure seems to be FUBAR (especially when exercising his right to bear arms) but the gun doesn’t appear to be related to this story. Sorry to burst that bubble.

Its perfectly legal to carry a pistol if licensed and what most people don’t realize is that you don’t have to conceal. You can openly carry. You can walk around on public streets carrying a pistol, so long as you have a permit.

I think Hackbarth needs a serious refresher on do’s and don’ts when carrying. When someone is this stupid while carrying a legal firearm, it makes the rest of us who can also legally carry, look bad.